


Tumblr Ramblings (Obi-Wan Time Travel/AU-jump)

by gaealynn



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 10:53:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9652808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaealynn/pseuds/gaealynn
Summary: At the end of RotJ, Obi-Wan reaches out a hand to help Anakin cross over and instead -- wakes up on Naboo.





	1. Obi-Wan Wakes Up

**Author's Note:**

> This is the obligatory warning that this isn't going to a proper fic (more a series of snippets connected by semi-coherent headcanon) and it's highly unlikely to be properly finished.
> 
>  
> 
> _Original Tumblr note: Sometimes terrible, wonderful people on the internet make too many pretty, amazing thing and my brain gets eaten by a fandom and I am forcibly ejected from the lurker’s cave. Sometimes it’s a seriously old fandom that I thought I was done with. But apparently not._
> 
>  
> 
> _likealeafonthewind, fireflyfish, glare-gryphon, dakt37, elfpen, teapirate, forcearama, themikeymonster, dyingsighs, darthluminescent, swpromptsandasks – you’re all on my shitlist for being too awesome, screw you guys_
> 
>  
> 
> _So here’s a little bit of yet another time-travel/AU-jump thing, half-written and unbeta’d, because I hate myself, productivity, and being a functioning adult._

Anakin is nearby. This filters through when very little else has, his Force presence too bright and too longed-for to be missed; Obi-Wan reaches out without hesitation, though the effort is agony, and brushes his mind against Anakin’s, spilling over _welcome relieved safe glad_. 

Anakin’s mind presses back against his own after the briefest hesitation, and he gets back _startled excited confused happy? confused_ \-- which is when he realizes that something isn’t quite right.

***

“Rude, it is, to feign sleep, when awake you are.”

“Rude, it is, to wake one, when dead, both of you are supposed to be,” Ben managed, with less equanimity than he’d have liked, voice rusty with disuse

“Hmmm. Hmmmmmmm. Right you may be, but dead, we are _not_.” The old troll sounded amused, and Ben didn’t bother to hide his resentment as he opened his eyes.

Yoda looked -- younger, and that was nearly as startling as not being dead. As a child, Ben had grown up thinking of the old Master as unchanging, but he’d been proven quite wrong, though he’d grown accustomed to the Yoda he’d come to know on Degobah, after his own passing -- ancient and half fey, grief having managed what time alone had not. 

“You’re looking sprightly,” He managed, after a moment; Yoda’s ears flickered sharply in amusement.

“See yourself, you should,” He returned, nearly gleeful. “A Padawan again, old Master Kenobi has become.”

Ah. Yes. There was indeed a Padawan braid trailing down his shoulder. Ben reached for it, muscles protesting the movement, and flicked it up so that he could examine it briefly, then let it drop, arm practically collapsing back to his side. Force, he felt terrible.

“Where are we?” He asked after a moment of contemplating that oddity, not even trying to reach out again to sense their surroundings; his head felt like it was packed with rocks, a clear enough warning that trying for even that little bit would, at the moment, cause severe regret.

“On Naboo, we are; defeated, the Trade Federation has been.” Naboo. Ben let his eyes fall shut again and exhaled slowly -- only to jerk and snap them open again at the sharp prod of a gimmer stick. The older Master regarded him sympathetically, and pointed.

***

[So, it turns out that RotJ!Obi-Wan/Ben has woken up on Naboo just after the battle with the Trade Federation and their fight with Darth Maul. He’s in TPM!Obi-Wan’s body and has been in an exhaustion-induced coma for almost a week. … which, actually, the medical team has been pretty excited about, because he’d been _dead_ when they found him, so the coma is a distinct improvement, even if they can’t explain the strange, nearly-sonic boom that had rumbled through the room just before his heart had started again.

And Qui-Gon Jinn… ] 

“Saved him, young Obi-Wan did,” Yoda explained gravely, when Obi-Wan managed to pull himself off the bed and stumble across the small room to stare down at the room’s other occupant.

“How?” He asked, hoarsely. 

“Know this, I do not,” Yoda admitted, “Not young Obi-Wan’s strength, the healing arts. Cost him much, it did, to save his Master.”

Not just much, but -- everything, Ben realized. The body he now inhabited bore no fatal wound; the young man, this other self, had done for their Master what Ben, in his own time, had not even tried for -- but had died as a result. How did that work? Ben wondered, distantly. If his younger self were already dead, how could there be an older him to take his place…?

Lying on the bed, his midsection still swathed in bandages, Qui-Gon looked… peaceful. The faint traces of Yoda’s Force signature lingered around him and the faint, sharp smell of bacta permeated the room; he was in an induced healing trance, then, but had probably been in bacta for several days, until very recently. Without intending to, Ben reached one hand out, brushed just the tips of his fingers over a well-defined cheekbone. It was warm. Qui-Gon was _alive_.

It was not, Ben realized faintly, through the faint haze of exhaustion and old grief mingling with new, the reunion for which he had been hoping. 

Because his last memory was of watching Darth Vader turn on Sideous, of watching Anakin speak to his son, their Luke, and feeling far too many things to name.

Guilt, because Luke had been right -- Anakin had been within Vader all along, and Obi-Wan had abandoned him to that, had never even tried, never even _thought_ to try, left him for _eighteen years_ in the crushing Dark. 

Sorrow, because he had seen what turning on Sidious had cost, seen Vader’s -- Anakin’s -- life failing, that body far too damaged to be sustained even if Luke could have gotten him somewhere with medical care, which Obi-Wan knew was out of the question. 

And _joy_ , to see _Anakin_ again, even under such circumstances, even knowing that Anakin might blame him -- would be right to blame him -- to see Anakin, when he had thought him lost forever, when he had never even hoped --

 

But instead, just as he had reached out, a guiding hand to bring Anakin across, away from the failures of their life and back into the Light where he belonged -- the Force had trembled and --

Obi-Wan had fallen and --

surfaced _here_

alive

_again_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... it doesn't feel complete without the tumblr tags:
> 
> #meanwhile forceghost!Anakin is freaking the fuck out because Obi-Wan seriously just DISAPPEARED  
> #which is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE  
> #HOW CAN YOU DISAPPEAR OUT OF THE FORCE WHEN YOU'RE DEAD JFC OBI-WAN  
> #as if throwing off the yoke of the darkside and killing sidious wasn't stressful enough  
> #now he has to figure out where the f his old master just went and save him AGAIN  
> #and forceghost!yoda is being COMPLETELY unhelpful no surprise there  
> #in fact has yoda gotten CRAZIER?  
> #anakin is pretty sure yoda's gotten craizer


	2. Featuring Stoic Jedi Snuggles

[So Yoda explains that back on Coruscant he’d come to (from meditation? sleep? unconsciousness? death?) at the very same time that Obi-Wan had inexplicably come back to life on Naboo, and immediately packed up several members of the Council and a handful of healers and headed for Theed. He seems to remember/know everything that Ben remembers, and yet… 

It’s not quite clear is _what_ , exactly, all of this is. Have they shared a powerful Force Vision? Is it time travel? An alternate universe? 

Yoda’s holding out for Force Vision, but Ben is honestly -- pretty sure it’s not. At least not for him. Even just the time they spend talking together before Ben is too exhausted to continue makes Ben suspect -- well, that he and Yoda have not had _quite_ the same experience. 

Yoda just seems… too whole, to be the same Yoda that had lived through the destruction of the Jedi order. Grieved, and concerned over what he’d seen, to be sure, but -- not hollowed out and unmoored, the way that Ben still feels. The way the Yoda on Degobah had been. Yoda is a grand master of the Living Force, true, and the Force is indeed a powerful ally, but there are some things… 

They’re not able to come to agreement on what has happened. 

“Matter, it does not,” Yoda finally says, when Ben can no longer hide his mounting exhaustion, this young body still far too drained for an extended philosophical debate. “Knowledge, we have gained. Act on it, we will. But rest, you require.” 

So Yoda leaves Obi-Wan to rest, and…] 

*** 

“.... Master Obi-Wan?” The high voice from the door, sometime later, was not a surprise. The surge of pure gratitude, verging on happiness, that swept through him at the once-familiar voice, however, was. Ben embraced it, the feeling uncomplicated and pure in a way he had nearly forgotten, and allowed a smile to bloom on his face. 

“I’m not your Master, Anakin,” he corrected gently, and gestured the young boy into the room. “You should just call me -- Obi-Wan.” And, ah, what a strange thing to say! 

Anakin, impossibly young and wide eyed and Light, darted into the room quickly, casting a look over at Qui-Gon’s still form on his way to Ben’s bedside. 

“Are you alright?” Anakin asked immediately, pressing himself anxiously against the high side of the medical bed. “Is -- is Master Qui-Gon alright?” 

“I’m quite fine, Anakin, and I believe that Master Qui-Gon will be, as well.” Ben answered, and chuckled at the wave of relief that immediately poured off the boy. He’d forgotten how much, and how strongly, Anakin had projected before he’d learned to hold basic shields. 

“Master Yoda said that you would be, but I -- I came every day,” this was offered somewhat shyly, and quickly followed up with an earnestly concerned, “and it seemed like you were dead! You’ve been asleep forever.” 

“Six days is quite a long time,” Ben agreed gravely, and Anakin nodded fervently, still darting looks in Qui-Gon’s direction, hands twisting anxiously in the sheets at Ben’s side. Ben knew what he should do, according to the teachings of the Temple, and what he would have done -- what he had done -- when he’d come to know Anakin for the first time. But he was too old and tired, now, to chide Anakin over this heartfelt worry. Besides which, he had to admit to himself, he simply… did not want to. 

“Why don’t you come up here?” He offered instead, shifting himself slightly to make room on the bed and patting the empty spot. Anakin stared up in surprise for only a second, then scrambled up, not even hesitating before tucking himself under the arm that Ben held up. 

He looked _so_ much like Luke at this age, Ben thought in astonishment. Who had been looking after him while he and Qui-Gon had laid asleep? Padme -- or rather, now, Queen Amidala -- surely would have seen that his needs were met, but the Queen couldn’t possibly have much time to spend with a little boy after Naboo’s recent crisis. And Anakin had just left his mother, whom he had never before been without, and was now on a strange planet... 

Ben could not recall if he had found those circumstances so alarming his first time around, but he could not, in fact, recall much from those days other than the pressing grief. He suspected, now, that he’d been a very poor comfort to his young padawan. 

“How have you been, Anakin?” He asked, when his study of the young boy had stretched on too long. Anakin, warm and bright beside him, did not seem to mind. 

“I’m wizard,” The young boy declared immediately. Obi-Wan chuckled; perhaps his concern was misplaced. “I destroyed the droid ship and Padme says I’m a hero and I got to be in a parade! Uh, not that -- I didn’t mean to leave the hanger, I swear!” 

“Oh?” Ben asked, to cover his confusion. What? -- ah, yes, Qui-Gon had told him to stay put. 

“It started to fly on its own!” Anakin explained earnestly, “I didn’t mean to, but I just-- I couldn’t _not_ help! I _knew_ I had to….” 

“Your instincts do you credit, young one; the battle could not have been won had the droid ship remained functional.” Anakin brightened again, and beamed up. Ben hid his amusement; this was something that his padawan had never managed to shake, the desire for praise, and this honest reception of it was more charming than the somewhat arrogant preening that Anakin had taken to in his later teenage years. _That_ thought, however, threatened to turn dark, so he shook it off quickly. 

“And Master Yoda and Master Billaba are teaching me to meditate!” Anakin continued brightly, before wilting slightly and confessing, “But, uh, it isn’t going so well,” before hurriedly moving on, “and this morning, Master Yoda let me take apart his lightsaber!” 

Oh, stars. 

“That’s -- extremely kind of him.” Ben managed, swallowing a laugh. How desperate had the old troll had been, to allow such a thing? Anakin was a far cry from the orderly children that Yoda liked to visit in the creche. 

“Yeah, it was wizard! And, uh. I wanted… to ask…” For the first time, Anakin seemed unsure, twisting away, slightly, from where he’d been lying against Obi-Wan’s side, eyes downcast. 

“You can ask me anything you like, Anakin,” Ben reassured, and Anakin bit his lip, but continued. 

“I thought -- this morning? It seemed like you were in the room, but you weren’t there! But I felt you!” Anakin insisted, eyes wide again. Ben frowned, and then realized. 

“You mean this?” He asked, and reached out again; even though he was still exhausted, it was easier this time, with Anakin so close, to brush the happy content glad to see you against the boy’s mind. Anakin’s eyes went even wider. 

“Wizard,” He breathed, and Ben didn’t even try to hide the smile as Anakin pressed back again, happy excited happy -- although there was still that faint hint of confused. 

“What is it, Anakin?” 

“I thought -- youdidn’tlikeme?” It was a quick mumble, Anakin’s mind pulling back from his own even as the boy cast his eyes back down to the floor. 

Oh, Force. He’d been such an arrogant, young fool. And why was Anakin always so perceptive exactly when Ben wanted him to be oblivious? 

“That’s not true,” Ben reassured hastily, heart twisting -- had his own Anakin believed the same thing? Had their problems started even here? 

“But you said--” 

“I know,” Ben cut him off, “I know, Anakin. And I can only ask you to forgive me, for being very unkind. I was -- I was afraid,” He admitted, “And I allowed my fear to control me. It is not the Jedi way.” 

“So you do think I’m dangerous?” Anakin asked, voice wobbling, and Ben pulled him closer, tight against his side, and shut his eyes against a future that had already -- and not yet -- happened. 

Did he believe Anakin was dangerous? All beings had the potential for darkness; he knew that now better than most. But to say that the bright, warm being in his arms was destined for the Dark? To throw away this Light, over the fear that Anakin _might_ someday turn? 

No. Ben wouldn’t do it. Even if Anakin were tempted, even if Anakin did Fall again -- there would still be hope. Ben knew that now. 

“No,” He breathed his denial into the soft blond hair. To himself, to Anakin, to the Force? He didn’t know. “No, Anakin. You’re not dangerous.” Not any more than any other Jedi. “I’m so sorry…” 

He wouldn’t fail Anakin again. 

*** 

Later, when Anakin had exhausted himself (describing the palace and the victory celebration and his new studies with Yoda and Billaba and, of course, Padme -- oh, so very much about Padme) and fallen asleep against Ben’s shoulder, Ben let himself drift. 

The Force was comforting, here, in the busy city of Theed; millions of sentient lives overlapping, a gentle, contented hum that smoothed out thousands of tiny, petty instances of disagreement and discord. So much more _life_ than there had ever been on Tatooine. 

Anakin, against his shoulder, so star-bright that it almost hurt to look at him in the Force, though it was only a fraction of the strength that Ben knew he would someday achieve. And across the room, Qui-Gon, his Master, that cool-warm presence, reminiscent of the deep forest… 

Not his, Ben carefully avoided thinking, adrift in the Force, untethered among the great currents of a changing future. 

Not his, but beloved, and precious. He certainly wouldn’t fail them again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... it doesn't feel complete without the tumblr tags:
> 
> #so i’m working on this theory of a jedi force-bond-hive-mind  
> #that even though they are supposed to shun strong personal attachments they actually form unconscious bonds all of the time  
> #stronger between students/teachers and friends and work-partners who spend a lot of time together  
> #but there even between jedi who have touched minds only once #starting from infancy in the creche when it's still natural for them to share mental space  
> #before they’re taught to keep their minds apart and to only share deliberately  
> #just tiny little connections that linger and tether them all together  
> #so subtle that the jedi don’t even realize that they’re there  
> #but it's part of what gives the jedi their incredible resiliency  
> #what makes the temple such a soothing place for them  
> #this huge mental safety net that says family and home and safe  
> #what makes it possible for them to bounce back from mental damage that would ground any normal person  
> #and ben?  
> #ben does not have that anymore because this isn’t his universe  
> #and even though the jedi here are still alive he’s on the outside of that safety net  
> #not quite able to pinpoint what’s wrong but knowing that he doesn’t quite fit  
> #that some kind of vital connection is missing  
> #and oh SHIT  
> #did anakin EVER have that connection with anyone other than obi-wan?  
> #coming to the temple so late after everyone else had already learned to shield  
> #no close jedi friends  
> #never really working closely with any jedi other than obi-wan…  
> #yeah that kid was probably wiiiiiide open to mental manipulation actually  
> #and seriously dependent on obi-wan for his mental stability in a way that nobody realized


End file.
